Just a Guy
by lawnmowerelf
Summary: A collection of stand-alone short ficlets all centered around Methos. Some will be AU, some will be crossovers.
1. Life

Methos doesn't take many students. He doesn't have the temperament for it, not really. And he's already outlived virtually everyone that he's ever known, and it makes him unwilling to take on someone that he knows won't survive no matter what he teaches them.

But every once and a while, someone comes along with the potential to be great. To be amazing. To survive when almost none of the other young pups out there will. Those young Immortals, the ones whose drive to not only survive but thrive is as strong as his own, those he's willing to teach.

There haven't been many, but every student that Methos has trained since he left the Horsemen is still alive. And what makes him the proudest is the fact that the Watchers haven't found any of them.

Because Methos doesn't just teach his students sword work, though by the time he's finished with them his students are some of the finest with a blade in the world. No, he teaches them to hide, to blend in to the crowd. He teaches them to look innocuous, to give off an air of complete harmlessness that can fool even the most cynical Immortal.

He teaches them to survive, and in return they help him to remember to live. And if at the end there is no one left at the Gathering except for him and his students, Methos won't be a bit surprised.

And when that day comes, he'll teach them to survive the end, too.


	2. Birth - Doctor Who crossover

It's 1940 when he meets them, the impossible couple. Amy and Rory Williams, two people who should not be Immortal, yet somehow are. Methos knows without a shadow of doubt that the Williams are Immortal, he's felt their buzz and seen their Quickenings heal them.

But he also looked into Amy's eyes when she swore that she'd given birth to a baby girl, and he knows that she's not lying, not deluded. What she is, is impossible. He has never, in over five thousand years even heard of an Immortal giving birth to a child, but he believes this youngling when she claims that she has.

He's not looking for a student, certainly not two of them, but his greatest weakness has always been curiousity. So Methos takes the two of them on, teaching them how to survive while they tell him fantastic stories of travelling through time and space with a mad alien who wears a bowtie of all things.

And before long, he's glad that he was the one to find them first. Amy is as bright as a star, and Methos often finds himself basking in her glow. Rory is steadfast and solid, with a mind that's much older than his body. He reminds Methos a bit of himself, and it's comforting to be able to talk to someone else who's seen the world grow and change.

The three of them have arguments every now and then about whether it was the TARDIS that somehow made them Immortals or if they already were and she gave them the ability to have a child, and if either of those is the case what that means for the fate of the universe, but it's an argument that none of them win.

Methos hopes that when Amy and Rory catch up to their natural time, he'll be able to ask the TARDIS himself. He also wants to meet their daughter, and not just to see what he can figure out from the meeting. No, he wants to meet River Song because anything that comes from Amy and Rory must be amazing.


	3. Death - Supernatural crossover

Despite the fact that it was in San Diego now instead of Seacouver, Joe's bar was almost exactly the same, right down to the beer tab that Methos was steadily building up. Joe had even brought Methos' favorite bar stool down to California with him, after only a little bit of fussing. MacLeod could be found in the bar with comforting regularity, and for all that around ten years had passed even Joe seemed mostly unchanged. It was comfortable, it was familiar, and since for some reason San Diego apparently had a much smaller Immortal population than either Seacouver or Paris it was quiet.

Until Methos felt a very familiar, non-Immortal, presence enter the bar.

"Do you have any idea just how hard it was to track you down?" Gabriel plopped himself down onto the bar stool next to Methos, pulled a sucker out of his jacket pocket and stuck it in his mouth.

Methos took a deep breath and focused on his beer bottle, pointedly not looking at either Gabriel or the obviously curious MacLeod. "Did you ever think that there might be a reason that I didn't want to be found?"

Gabriel snorted around his sucker. "Believe me, I'm the last one to go looking for someone who wants to be left alone. For Dad's sake, I just want to be left alone. But Mikey and Lucy are about to have their big showdown, so none of us are going to get what we want."

For a long moment, all Methos could do was stare at his beer bottle. Then he carefully placed it on the bar and turned to face Gabriel. "It's not time yet. Trust me, if it was time for the big prize fight I'd have been told."

"Well, Lucy seems to think that it's time. He's popped the lock on the cage, and he's running around up here stalking his vessel and making plans."

Methos closed his eyes. "And Michael?"

Gabriel shrugged. "No one's actually seen him, I don't think, but his flunkies are stalking his vessel. Either way, we're all screwed unless someone talks some sense into those two feather brains." He sighed, then finally pulled the sucker out of his mouth and looked over at Methos. "It's really not time yet?"

"No, not yet." For the first time since he'd entered the bar, Methos met Gabriel's eyes. "Besides, if it was time He'd have told you, too."

Gabriel's eyes brightened. "So you'll fix this, right? Because I kinda like it down here, and no matter what I told those two idiot Winchesters I don't want it gone." He smirked. "I don't even really want the two of them gone. They're too much fun to screw with."

Methos' answering smile was sharp. "Oh, I'll fix this. I may have to knock their heads together a few times, but I'll fix it." He gulped the last of his beer and rose to his feet, then started for the door, Gabriel only a step behind him.

"Um, I'm really sorry to butt in like this, but just what the hell is going on?"

Methos rolled his eyes, then glanced back over his shoulder at MacLeod, whose curiosity had evidently reached the breaking point. "Just a bit of family business to take care of, Mac. If you really want me to, I'll explain when I get back. But for now, let's just say that Methos wasn't the first name I went by and leave it at that."

Gabriel grinned over his shoulder at MacLeod, then slapped Methos on the back and pushed him closer to the door. "Come on, Azrael. Let's blow this popsicle stand."

And just as the two of them reached the doorway, there was a flash of light and for an instant the shadows of three pair of large, feathery wings could be seen extending from both Methos' and Gabriel's backs.


End file.
